Marriage keeps us happy - don't let laws erode it

Friday 4 February 2011 10:33 BST

Unmarried couples should enjoy the same legal rights as those who have tied the knot, says the country's most senior family judge, Sir Nicholas Wall (married with four children). Millions of unmarried couples should be able to share property and money if they split up.

On the surface this seems fair and equitable - but won't it discourage people from marrying altogether? Sir Nicholas Wall insists it won't undermine marriage, but how can he be so confident? Marriage as an institution is already on the way out and less popular than ever. It remains stubbornly in decline. Fewer of us are doing it and more marriages end in divorce than ever before. One in six couples are unmarried, and that figure is expected to rise to one in four in 20 years' time.

Once again the real winners in this scenario will be the lawyers. Sir Nicholas's proposal is a gold-diggers' charter. And it will be a legal quagmire. How long will you have to cohabit with someone before you can have a claim on their estate? A year? Two years? The cut-off date will be totally arbitrary. Individuals will no longer notch up partners on their bed posts. They will be encouraged to change their bed posts every two years.

Sir Nicholas claims women cohabitees are particularly disadvantaged. But if a woman lives with a man and he refuses to get wed, she can always up sticks and leave. It's not as if she is compelled to stay with him. What surprises me is the number of people who stay together without marrying: is it because they are waiting for somebody better to come along before they decide to commit?

Marriage is the solvent of society (be it a civil marriage or a church blessing) and should be encouraged, not discouraged. If people are not prepared to commit to each other, why should they be entitled to the same rights? It would be a shame if marriage became simply a middle-class indulgence, like organic food.

Marriage improves your longevity, mental health and lifestyle choices. Only last month, a study published in the British Medical Journal showed that committed couples live longer than singletons and that having lots of sexual partners can shorten your life span.

Society still values marriage (just), as do our political leaders. "I know from my own life that a happy marriage and healthy children matter more than anything else," said Nick Clegg last year.

From 2012 David Cameron has pledged to introduce a happiness or GWB - "general well-being" - index which will measure people's quality of life and not just their economic prosperity. If Cameron is so keen on our collective happiness, he should not allow the judiciary to erode further the institution of marriage and line the legal profession's pockets under the fig leaf of fairness. That is a recipe for unhappiness all round.

Naomi's Russian inquisition

Naomi Campbell's hard-hitting interview with Russian premier Vladimir Putin was so far beyond parody it read like a spoof.

"You're in pretty good shape. How do you manage to keep yourself so fit?" No boring political questions about whether he planned to stand for the presidency again or about his strategy for keeping the Chechens in check. No, our Naomi has a knack for getting to the bare bones of a subject. Or in this case, Putin's torso. "What's your fitness regime?" she asked in a follow-up question exhibiting the steadfast resolve of Jeremy Paxman.

The supermodel has form when it comes to grilling political bogeymen: she once asked Venezuela's Hugo Chávez if he knew the Spice Girls. If only Naomi could be let loose on Charles Taylor, the ex-leader of Liberia, alleged war criminal and bequeather of dirty stones. "Charles, why do you make such an impression on women?"

Are iPods a worse torture than Muzak?

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies says piped Muzak is an invasion of privacy and is killing our capacity to enjoy peace and silence. He wants it to be banned from restaurants, shops and telephones (which generated between them £40 million in royalties in 2009).

But is piped Muzak any worse than the hordes of young zombies who wander our streets with earphones and wires dangling from their ears? You don't have to go into a shop if you hate its piped Muzak. But you do have to share a Tube, bus and train with music listeners and be assaulted by the constant tinny noise emerging from their iPods and Walkmans.

They are missing out on so much - serendipitous encounters, conversation and, of course, a chance to rail out loud about piped Muzak.

Welcome to world despots

London has always been a soft touch when it comes to providing a refuge for dispossessed former heads of state. President Mubarak, we now learn, has a bolthole in Knightsbridge (who doesn't?) to which he may or may not come if the balloon goes up in Egypt. Two years ago it was revealed that ex-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was living off Edgware Road.

In fact, last year it was reported that more than 50 alleged mass murderers and torturers have found safe haven in London, making us one of the war criminal capitals of the world - and they cannot be prosecuted or deported, for fear of infringing their human rights. Suspects include a supporter of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, a senior figure from the Mugabe regime, and Afghan warlords. And, oh yes, some Rwandans implicated in the 1994 genocide.

Never mind about hugging hoodies. In our new Big Society we must learn to hug undesirable despots as well.